Halloween

How many elementary school principals, do you know, have to write an open letter to the parents of his students asking them to disguise themselves "appropriately" for the Halloween parade? Ours did, because one too many moms in recent years have shown up on the playground dressed as hookers or sexy she-devils, wearing too revealing an outfit (thinking they are so daring and creative) and he's trying to put a stop to it. Why? Because the audience is fifteen years too young for this kind of exposure! Hello? Don't get me wrong, I love a good party and I don't consider myself a prude but I was shocked when I read the flyer that came home in Jack's folder. Then, I was stunned when I read the next one: "hand out Granola bars and mini carrots instead of chocolates so that we can be "healthy." In retrospect, I can see how the principal was trying to cover our mental health as well as our physical health in those bulletins. Something for everyone, just pick and chose.

Nevertheless, Halloween was a blast this year. Jack and I invited a dozen of his friends and their parents over for a bucket of the "Colonel's best" and some refreshments to kick off the "Trick or Treat through the neighborhood walk". Poor dad could not be with us. He was stuck at a Rolling Stones concert in New York and had to miss out on all the fun and excitement.

We live at one end of this almost rural neighborhood and nobody ever pays us a visit on Halloween, so we've started this tradition of having a few people over for a bite to eat before they go out -- I figure that nothing goes better with candy and chocolate than a bit of grease and maybe a glass of Chardonnay, to put you in a festive mood. So, just after it got dark, we pulled out the lanterns and the plastic to-go cups and chaperoned the kids to the street where all the action happens when it comes to the spectacle of Halloween. We're talking decapitated heads, mummies walking the streets, haunting projections on the sides of houses, women who may have had too much plastic surgery -- you name it - - a very ghoulish experience for the faint of heart.

Jack went as a werewolf. I slapped together his disguise by cutting the horse head off a costume that was too small for him and sticking a werewolf mask over it. The only drawback was Jack's size. I wanted to paint his hands and feet blood red, to compensate, but he wouldn't let me. Then, he insisted on wearing socks with his sandals. Ergo, the photo you see. Scary from the waist up, scarier from the knees down.

Jack insisted that Makena wear the bat costume he wore for his first Halloween (one of the few baby items of his that I have kept) and by some miracle, related to her tiny size, it fit. I managed to snap a shot of her dressed as a bat in front of her Fisher Price house (talk about musical nightmare) and had I had Jack's photo of him wearing it on disc, I would have posted it as well.

I, on the other hand, ended up slapping the cut-off horse head from Jack's old costume on my head and pretending to be the decapitated horse from the Godfather movie. I would post the photo but I'm way too vain. Now, had my husband been in town. I probably would have dressed as Superwoman. I love those red boots!

Yeah, right.

Isabelle